1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector, particularly to an electrical connector for connecting a plurality of electric circuits by mechanical coupling with a counter electrical connector, and a fabrication method of the connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIGS. 1A through 1C are plan, front, and sectional views of a prior art male connector with a dual-in-line half-pitched contact array for the SCSI specification, respectively. The male connector is composed of an insulating housing 41 encapsulated by a metal shell 42, and a array of contact members 43 inserted into dual-in-line rectangular shaped through-holes 44 of the insulating housing 44. While FIGS. 2A through 2C are plan, front, and sectional views of a prior art dual-in-line female connector, respectively, which mechanically couples with the male connector to make an electric connection as shown in FIGS. 1A through 1C. The female connector is composed of an insulating housing 21, a metal shell 22, an array of pairs of upper and lower contact members 23 inserted into rectangular shaped through-holes 24 to be fixed to the insulating housing 21, and an insulating base 26 having terminal-supporters 25 gaplessly continuous to the insulating housing 21, in which each of the upper and lower contact members 23, made by a metal plate, has a body 30, a pair of spring contacts 28 at a front end of the body with respective opposing contact parts 29, and an L-shaped terminal 27 at a back end. Further, FIGS. 3A and 3B are sectional views of another type of prior art in-line male and female connectors, respectively. In both cases, the male connectors shown in FIGS. 1A through 1C and FIG. 3A couple with the female connectors shown in FIG. 2B and FIG. 3B by inserting each of the respective male contacts 43 and 49 thereof into the corresponding female spring contacts 28 and 33 thereof, respectively. Although a pair of the spring contacts of the female connector squeezes the inserted contact of the male connector, incomplete coupling often occurs due to severe jarring or accidental pull of a cable. Such an incomplete coupling of connector may give rise not only to a not simple disconnection of the electric circuits but also to an unrecoverable breakdown of the input circuit due to a sudden increase of an input impedance. For example, if an input terminal is opened while the input circuit is activated, the input circuit is often damaged, particularly an input circuit to an MOSLSI circuit. Therefore, it is desirable that the input circuit is activated after the input terminal is terminated with a proper input impedance by complete coupling of connectors. Further, it may be convenient in some cases that a complete or an incomplete coupling of connectors is correspondingly indicated by a suitable indicator, such as a warning lamp or a signal on a display. Therefore, it is needed to detect whether a coupling of connectors is completed or not. However, either case of the prior art connector has nothing to do for these inconvenience. Of course, the circuit can be protected by some protective circuit, but it incurs no little expense and complex circuits. These inconveniences and requirements must be improved simultaneously to achieve an advanced, improved connector.